U.S.-Mexico Deal Will Not Impact Amnesty Pipeline for MS-13 Gang

A plan struck by President Trump between the United States and Mexico to help stem soaring levels of illegal immigration at the southern border will not impact an amnesty pipeline for unaccompanied minors and their illegal alien relatives — a tool often used by the MS-13 Gang to grow membership.

A recent deal Trump has settled with Mexican officials will allow the U.S. to return adult border crossers and the children they arrive at the southern border with to Mexico while they await their asylum and immigration proceedings.

Effectively, as Breitbart News has reported, the deal is likely to end the mass catch and release of illegal adult border crossers and the children they bring with them.

Unaffected by the deal, though, is an amnesty pipeline for Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) and the illegal alien sponsors and family members they are often released to in the U.S. that was out in place by a GOP-Democrat-approved spending bill months ago.

“The UACs are still going to be allowed in and even worse, because of the spending bill that passed a few months ago,” Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan told SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight.

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The spending package, approved by Republicans and Democrats in Congress in February, prevents federal immigration officials from deporting any illegal alien who has contact with an unaccompanied minor that has been resettled in the U.S. after crossing the southern border.

Federal officials have repeatedly noted how the UAC program has been widely used by the MS-13 gang to import more gang members into the country.

Last year, New York City Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Angel Melendez said there are roughly 22,000 UAC “potential recruits” who are resettled across the country every year out of about 40,000 total UACs. These are mostly young men trafficked across the southern border from Central America, especially El Salvador.

According to Vaughan, in about 80 percent of cases, an unaccompanied minor is released into the U.S. to an illegal alien sponsor. In the majority of those cases, the sponsor is a family member.

Illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border has soared to record levels not seen since President Bill Clinton. Last month, alone, more than 132,000 border apprehensions were made and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has previously admitted that all adult border crossers arriving with children are being released into the interior of the country. At current illegal immigration levels, researchers project there to be more than a million illegal crossings by the end of the year.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.